Eleventh Amendment of the Constitution of Ireland

The Eleventh Amendment of the Constitution of Ireland permitted the state to ratify the Maastricht Treaty. It was effected by the Eleventh Amendment of the Constitution Act, 1992, which was approved by referendum on 18 June 1992 and signed into law on 16 July of the same year.

The Eleventh Amendment of the Constitution was one of a number of amendments that have been made to expressly permit the state to ratify changes to the founding treaties of the European Union (then known as the European Community) (others have been the Tenth, Eighteenth and Twenty-sixth Amendments). These amendments were all adopted in response to the 1987 ruling of the Supreme Court, in the case of Crotty v. An Taoiseach, that major changes to the treaties are unconstitutional unless accompanied by an amendment. However it has been a matter of scholarly dispute as to whether or not each of these treaties has been sufficiently far-reaching as to actually necessitate a referendum. The official name of the Maastricht Treaty is the Treaty on European Union. While the changes shown above are those made to the English-language version of the constitution, constitutionally it is the text that has precedence.

The Eleventh Amendment was introduced by a Fianna Fáil–Progressive Democrats coalition government but the only parties to oppose it were Democratic Left and the Green Party. Some pro-life groups also opposed the treaty, arguing that it might lead to legalised abortion in the Republic. Voting in the referendum went 1,001,076 (69.1%) in favour and 448,655 (30.9%) against.

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